Monday
May 29
THE LONGEST TIME PROPHECY (Dan. 8:14; 10:1, 2; 12:4-10).
How can the 2,300-year prophecy build up your confidence in
God's Word as we await the Second Coming? Dan. 8:14.
Seventh-day Adventists began as a prophetic movement rooted in
an understanding of the 2,300-year prophecy. Synonymous with the
Millerite movement, some "seventy-five prominent and respected voices,"
scattered over a dozen nations on four continents, tracked this proph-
ecy to fulfillment in about 1843-1847. These were all prior to publication
of William Miller's first book on prophecy in 1836.—Le Roy Edwin
Froom, "The Status of Prophetic Interpretation," in
The Prophetic
Faith of Our Fathers: The Historical Development of Prophetic Inter-
pretation
(Washington, D.C.: The Review and Herald Publishing Asso-
ciation, 1954), vol. 4, p. 403. Thirty-eight of these writers ended the
2,300 years in 1843 or 1844 and thirty in 1847. Many expositors were
convinced that the fulfillment of this prophecy marked the "time of
the end," the "latter days," or the "last days."—Page 407. William
Miller himself believed human probation would end shortly before the
Second Advent. (See page 409.)
Church historian Le Roy Edwin Froom wrote: "It disposes forever of
the notion that this [concept] was simply or principally an American
Millerite or New World concept. . . . It began, instead, on the Continent
of Europe and in the British Isles, but almost immediately appeared on
both sides of the Atlantic. It was distinctly international, and was virtu-
ally a simultaneous world phenomenon."—Page 410. This was a direct
fulfillment of Revelation 10:1, 2, which portrayed an angel with the open
book of Daniel standing on the land and on the sea.
The global impact of this prophecy was also predicted in Daniel 12.
Daniel predicted that "many" would understand the unsealed contents
of his book after the end of the 1,260 years, which closed in 1798
(12:4, 7). This promise was repeated in 12:9 and 10 to show the
certainty of the prophecy's fulfillment. Daniel wrote, "for the words
are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified
. . . the wise shall understand" (12:9, 10, NKJV).
Froom records the historical fulfillment of this prediction: "It was . . .
the spontaneous conviction of many of the finest minds of the time. . . ."
"And finally," writes Froom, "it lays low the suggestion that this
[concept] was the hobby of a single unstable religious group. . . . It was,
instead, spread with amazingly balanced distribution among all leading
religious groups or denominations."—Page 410.
Why has God allowed so much time to elapse between 1844
and the final end? What does this
say
about His character?
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